Exciting New APH Products Announced!

Seeking Field Evaluators for Color-by-Texture Marking Mats

APH is seeking field evaluators for Color-by-Texture Marking Mats. Add a new dimension to coloring activities by allowing students with low vision and blindness to select from an assortment of marking mats that represent six discernible patterns—rough, bold bumpy, zigzag, wavy, small bumpy, and diagonal lines. Simply place one of the marking mats underneath a coloring page and rub with a waxed crayon to achieve an embossed texture; if desired, add multiple textures to a single page. Accompanying the six marking mats are 25 raised-line coloring pages and two sets of waxed crayons. The textured marking mats can be used in combination with adapted off-the-shelf coloring pages or for open-ended coloring activities.

Field evaluators will be asked to use the prototype with multiple students with visual impairments and blindness. Evaluators will then complete and return a product evaluation form at the end of the testing period. Samples of student-generated coloring pages will be requested as well. Field test sites will be selected based upon geographic location, number of available students, and type of instructional setting. Preference will be given to those who have not recently field tested an APH product. The number of prototypes is limited. Field testing will begin in February 2014 and extend through the end of April 2014. If you are interested in possibly serving as a field evaluator, please provide the following information: your name, title, school/agency, type of setting (e.g., residential, itinerant), number of available students (with ages, grade levels, and primary reading media indicated), and your complete contact information (phone number, mailing address, and email address). Send this information to Karen J. Poppe, Tactile Graphics Project Leader, email hidden; JavaScript is required, by January 5, 2014. You may also contact Karen at 502-899-2322 or 800-223-1839, ext. 322. Thank you!

Oldies but Goodies: The "Established" APH Product Series

The abacus is a calculating tool that has been used for centuries. The traditionally designed abacus has beads or counters that move back-and-forth on columns with virtually no resistance. This allows for the device to be used for calculating with great speed, but does not lend itself well towards use by a person who is blind or visually impaired. The Cranmer Abacus is a 13-rod abacus which has been adapted specifically for users who are blind so that it may be ready tactually. It has a red felt backing which prevents the beads from slipping. The frame of this abacus measures 6 1/8 x 3 1/4 inches and the bead diameter is 3/8 inch.

Several manuals and guidebooks are available to assist students in learning how to use this valuable tool. Some of these booklets, including The Abacus Made Easy and Using the Cranmer Abacus for the Blind are available as a free-of-charge print or braille file downloads from our downloadable manuals page at www.aph.org/manuals/.

The Cranmer Abacus was the first abacus that APH developed, but over the years, based on suggestions from the field, we have developed several other adaptations of this tool to address specific needs. APH currently also provides the Beginner’s Abacus with only two rods of 9 beads, the Expanded Beginner’s Abacus Kit with three rods of 9 beads, and the Large Abacus, which is an enlarged version of the Cranmer Abacus designed for younger students and those without fine motor skills. And, while we certainly love our "oldies but goodies," there is now the new EZeeCOUNT Abacus which consists of a 10 x 10 grid of flat beads that can be flipped and distinguished by color or texture.

If you have any suggestions for other products you would like to see highlighted in this monthly feature, please send your comments to Monica Turner at email hidden; JavaScript is required.

The 155-Year APH Technological Journey!

The APH press floor in 1943 featured three very different presses. Left to right is a Kelly “B” Automatic Cylinder Press, a Bobst Rotary Press, and a Universal/Colt’s Armory type platen press. To learn more about these and other presses used at APH, go to www.aph.org/museum/collections/featured/

New pages on the APH Museum website explore our 155-year technological journey, highlighting the history of every press and photocopier used in Louisville to bring accessible books to the nation. When APH was chartered in the winter of 1858, it had no equipment and no manufacturing space, and no one associated with the young enterprise had any experience embossing tactile books. The most critical decision made by the first board and founding superintendent, Bryce Patton, was to hire Boston press designer Stephen P. Ruggles to create the company’s first printing press.

Ruggles had worked with Samuel Gridley Howe on the first press at the Perkins School, and later built a press used at the Overbrook School in Philadelphia. When his press was finally set up, in the Printing House’s first shop in the basement of the Kentucky Institution for the Education of the Blind in 1865, its initial press run was 400 copies of a children’s book. Over the years, APH has adapted and invented dozens of different presses to emboss and print millions of pages annually. You can find the new web pages here: www.aph.org/museum/collections/featured/.

2014 Hall of Fame Nominations Now Being Accepted

Who should be the next inductees into the Hall of Fame for the Blindness Field?

If you are interested in learning more about the easy (electronic) process for submitting a nominee to join the 52 inductees, please visit: www.aph.org/hall/nominate.

Around the House:

APH Board Member Receives Prestigious Recognition

ATLANTA, Nov. 14, 2013 – Phoebe Wood is the 2013 recipient of OnBoard’s Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Award. Ms. Wood serves on many boards including Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc., the University of Louisville, the Gheens Foundation and the American Printing House for the Blind.

The award recognizes women who have made outstanding corporate contributions at the board level, in their communities, and in helping other women achieve their full potential in the business world. OnBoard is the leading authority of Georgia public companies and a catalyst to increase female directors on all for-profit company boards.

“Phoebe’s commitment and dedication to the companies she advises are matched only by the impact she has on them,” said John Brock, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises.

Wood is currently a principal at CompaniesWood, a consulting firm specializing in early stage investments. She served as Vice Chairman, Chief Financial Officer and in other capacities at Brown-Forman Corporation from 2001 until her retirement in 2008.

APH on the Road

Nebraska Fall Foliage Conference Welcomes APH

Field Services Representative Kerry Isham delivered a day-long presentation to a very enthusiastic group of about 50 professionals in the field of visual impairment and blindness on Thursday, October 24th, at the Nebraska Fall Foliage Conference in Nebraska City. The presentation began with an overview of APH and our mission and products, then focused on the core curriculum and expanded core curriculum, segueing into discussions about literacy and daily living. The day ended with group exercises and a rousing game of “Are You Smarter than a Field Services Representative?” Everyone’s eager participation helped make this day-long event interesting, useful and enjoyable.

A Special Time in Dublin—Ohio AER Conference

Karen Poppe, Tactile Graphics Project Leader, and Tom Poppe, Pattern/Model Maker, exhibited APH products at the AERO 2013 Division Day Conference in Dublin, Ohio, on November 1, 2013. Thanks to Brett Page, AERO Past-President and 2013 Conference Chair, for inviting us to showcase new products at this exciting event. Products of particular interest were Tactile Town, modernized Tactile Treasures, TREKS, and the EZeeCOUNT Abacus. The theme of the conference was “Innovate, Coordinate, Collaborate, and Rejuvenate.”

Making It Work @ MACRT/ASERT

Approximately 60 professionals in the field of rehabilitation came together in Savannah, GA, for the annual joint conference of the Mid-America Conference of Rehabilitation Teachers and Association of South Eastern Rehabilitation Teachers (MACRT/ASERT). The event, held November 11–13, highlighted topics such as teaching home repair, protecting clients and practitioners from identity theft, and information for agencies serving adults and the APH Federal Quota Program. Many attendees were surprised to learn that their clients are, indeed, eligible to receive Federal Quota funds.

Janie Blome, Director of Field Services, made the presentation to the group, and also exhibited a number of APH products. Participants were pleased to see all of the products exhibited, and were especially interested in the DRAFTSMAN Tactile Drawing Board, the VisioBook, and the revised Transition Tote System. The biggest hit of the conference, however, had to be the Touch ‘em All Baseball game. It scored a home run with the crowd!

Beach (SC AER) + APH = Successful Math Conference!

Adrienne Palmer stops by the APH table during SC AER.

Kerry Isham, Field Services Representative gave two presentations and also exhibited products at the 2013 South Carolina AER Conference held in Myrtle Beach, from November 14-15. In keeping with the conference theme of mathematics for individuals with blindness and visual impairments, Kerry’s presentations were on math products from APH and the new Orion TI-84 Plus Talking Graphing Calculator. Many of the participants also stopped by the APH table to check out products such as The Best for a Nest, MathBuilders – Unit 5, the EZeeCOUNT Abacus, the Number Line Device, the Venn Diagram Template Kit, and Geometro. APH was excited to be a part of this very successful conference at which approximately 75 professionals were in attendance.

STEM in California

The 2013 Annual Meeting focus for the APH trustees was very timely! Just a month later, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) had a huge push in California where 2,600 educators convened November 18-19 to learn how to motivate students to take courses in fields where new jobs are being created. The APH products in STEM and assistive technology, demonstrated by Ex Officio Trustee Jonn Paris-Salb, will provide the base for these students who must be computer literate, Internet savvy, social media wise, and aware of applications (apps). Jonn writes, “The APH booth was the only one to address accessibility. I have not talked so much since my days as a classroom teacher on the first day of school. I gave out a lot of catalogs and talked to many people about products and advocacy for people with disabilities-especially with vision impairment. Thank you again for allowing me to represent APH in this arena.” It is APH who thanks Jonn for making this positive and helpful effort on behalf of students!

From the Field:

NFB Partners with Odin Mobile

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is excited to announce a partnership with Odin Mobile, a wireless provider that is 100 percent dedicated to providing cellular service to people who are blind and visually impaired. This partnership will provide additional choice to fulfill mobile communications needs.

Odin Mobile offers a variety of cellular phones, including basic mobile phones with built-in accessibility features that allow individuals who are blind to text message, access contacts, and perform other basic tasks, as well as smart phones, such as the Nexus 4 from Google, that offer the latest in Android accessibility. With monthly airtime rates as low as $10 per month, Odin Mobile has plans to fit various budgets and needs. So the next time you need to buy a new cell phone, or subscribe to a new service provider, be sure to check out Odin Mobile at www.odinmobile.com, or call them at 855-217-9459.

Vermont

Treasures From the APH Libraries

The APH Barr Library supports research initiatives at APH, while the Migel Library is one of the largest collections of nonmedical information related to blindness in the world. Although the collections do not circulate, arrangements can be made to use the materials on-site. In addition, an ongoing digitization effort means APH will continue to make materials available through the online catalog at http://migel.aph.org.

From the Migel Library: "Anecdotes of a Blind Person." Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. 24 Feb. 1838: 71-72.

Published in 1838, “Anecdotes of a Blind Person” is one of the oldest accounts of a person who is blind that is held in the Migel Library. Although the names of the subject and author are not given, which itself seems to illustrate the era’s attitude towards blindness, the brief biography is still an engaging one. With no educational opportunities offered to him, the subject worked on his family farm, opened a tavern, and sold and broke horses to support his wife and children. He eventually came to the conclusion that he was most successful at making a living through his hobby of playing the fiddle, and navigated the countryside alone to play in villages all over the area. The article has been digitized for the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/anecdotesofblind00abra.

From the Barr Library: Lewin, Roger. "Probing the Mysteries of Blindsight." New York Magazine. 5 June 1978: 75-81.

This article depicts the story of Helen, a rhesus monkey who participated in a study intended to expand our knowledge about how a particular kind of brain damage impacts one’s capacity to see. In 1966, researcher Larry Weiskrantz cut the connections to Helen’s striate cortex, a primary brain center dealing with vision. Although Helen was blind after surgery, she developed blindsight, a term Weiskranz used to describe an unconscious phenomenon that can be developed into more conscious faculty among those with visual-field defects resulting from a stroke, brain tumor, or trauma to the back of the brain. One of the limitations of Helen’s “secret vision” is that she still could not create a mental map that would allow her to remember what things were or identify them by their location. Nevertheless, this experiment led to the important discovery that blindsight among humans, caused by the loss of focal vision, can be trained in useful ways.

APH is working with the Internet Archive to digitize portions of the M.C. Migel Library. Search the phrase “full text” to find these items at http://migel.aph.org. The digitized texts are available in a variety of formats, including DAISY, Kindle, EPUB, PDF, etc.

Don’t Miss the Newest Feature on the APH PE Website: Partners PE

The Apollo Brailler from Japan!

The Apollo Mark II was introduced in 1979 by Nimoko (the Blind Tool Development Center of Japan).

Our museum is looking for some help with the history of Japanese braillewriters. The APH Museum is known for its collection of international braillewriters. Of course, the first successful mechanical braillewriter was invented by Frank Hall and Gus Seiber in Chicago in 1892. But many other designs have come out of Europe and Asia over the years. In a recent visit to the Perkins School in Boston, APH Museum Director Mike Hudson stumbled across several interesting machines that we do not have in our collection, but one in particular caught his eye. A plain metal case protected a machine labeled in English and Japanese, the Apollo Brailler. Upon returning to Louisville, Mike started researching the Apollo and other Japanese braillewriters, trolling various online auction sites, and learning how to use Google Translate. With a lot of help, including generous pointers from Hiromi Kishi at the Kyoto Prefectural School for the Blind, we are starting to collect more of the Japanese writers and learn their history. If you know anything about the Light Brailler, the Apollo Mark II, the Apollo Super, or the Terataipu Brailler, let Mike know at email hidden; JavaScript is required or call 502-899-2365.

APH Hosts Great Groups

APH welcomes the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) Board Meeting to our facility! These experts from across the United States pursue the mission of "assuring literacy for tactile readers through the standardization of braille and/or tactile graphics." Nice to have so many friends visit us in Louisville!

Students from the University of Kentucky’s Visual Impairment personnel prep program recently visited APH. They will return in the spring for a full-day meeting in which they will learn even more about the products and services we offer. Thanks for visiting! Go ‘Cats!

So, pull up a comfy chair in Squire ToAD’s living room, and discover how the tools, toys, and puzzles in the ToAD Kit can play an essential part in your student’s vision curriculum, activities, and development. Bonus Homegrown musical number, starring Squire ToAD, included!

Runs approximately 16 minutes.

Closed Captioned and Subtitled

NEW! Games of Squares

Replacement Item

Games of Squares accommodates a variety of common board games, as well as some original games. The 8 x 8 inch grid board and accompanying game pieces incorporate color contrast and distinctive textures and shapes that can be easily discriminated by children, students, and adults with visual impairments and blindness. Choose to play: Tic-Tac-Toe, Trading Places, Square It, Zigzag, Checkers, Lucky Roll, and Corner Chase.

Variations to the suggested games, as well as the creation of additional games by the teacher, parent, or student, are encouraged. Starter ideas and possible adaptations are provided in the Game Instruction booklet.

Games of Squares Includes

8 x 8 inch Grid Board

X/O Game Tokens

Black U-channels

Red Masking Overlays

"Crown" O foam pieces

"Crown" X foam pieces

Tactile Dice

Storage/Sorting Trays

Game/Storage Box with handle

Game Instructions (flip-over style large print/braille)

Recommended ages: 5 years and up.

Note: One-time application of hook/loop material to the game grid, game tokens, and masking overlays is required of the customer.

WARNING: Choking Hazard–Small Parts. Not intended for children ages 5 and under without adult supervision.

APH offers a number of recreational books in braille (Quota funds can be used). Each of these titles was originally transcribed and produced by APH for the National Library Service which has graciously granted permission for this offering. As usual, these titles have been added to the APH Louis Database where you can find thousands of titles produced in accessible formats.

Note: all books are produced upon receipt of orders, therefore, please allow several weeks for delivery.

A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time
by Mary Pope Osborne: T-N1919-50 — $21.50
Jack and Annie travel back to Victorian London when Merlin asks them to use their magic to inspire Charles Dickens to write A Christmas Carol. Grades 2-4. *(AR Quiz No. 139440, BL 3.6 Pts 2.0)

Blind Vision: The Neuroscience of Visual Impairment
by: Zaira Cattaneo and Tomaso Vecchi T-N1936-90 — $125.00
Italian researchers examine the effects of blindness on the development and functioning of the human cognitive system. They demonstrate the ways other senses evolve to help compensate for the absence of sight.

Here to Stay, A Harrigan Family Novel
by Catherine Anderson: T-N1918-80 — $111.00
Crystal Falls, Oregon. When Mandy learns rancher Zach is training a miniature horse as a service animal, she wants it for her blind brother. Zach falls for Mandy — but her abusive childhood makes her avoid relationships. Some adult content.

His Lordship’s Chaperone
by Shirley Marks: T-N1920-30 — $59.50
Robert Moreland, the marquess of Haverton, stumbles upon a brilliant idea—hire his own female chaperone to prevent being trapped into marriage by one of London’s debutantes. Robert’s mother, the duchess of Waverly, hires nanny Catherine Hayward for the job. But the duchess has an ulterior motive.